The teaching and non-teaching staff of 12 colleges of University of Delhi (DU), fully funded by the Government of Delhi, have been without salary for several months.
The employees knock on the door of the University Grant Commission (UGC) to take over these lectures.
These DU lectures include Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Maharaja Agrasen College, Maharshi Valmiki College, Indira Gandhi Sports College, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Bhagini Nivedita College, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Science and Keshav Mahavidyalaya.
The workers say their salaries can hardly be paid with the financial subsidies from the Delhi government. These colleges also have guest lecturers and contract workers, who are paid Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 per month, and many are unpaid in the last two months. According to the teachers, they work unpaid.
The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) says the ad hoc teachers who work in these 12 colleges are described by the state government as ghost employees.
DUTA has demanded that these ad hoc and temporary teachers be accommodated by introducing a bill in the Legislative Assembly of Delhi.
The teachers’ organization has also requested the immediate release of 25 percent seats under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota.
DUTA has urged the central government to bring the 28 colleges funded and administered by the Delhi government directly under the UGC.
Ashok Aggarwal, a member and advocate of the University of Delhi, has said that not paying salaries to teachers and workers violates the right to earn a living. He said he was willing to help and cooperate legally in the case.
Earlier, DUTA President Professor AK Bhagi has said that the Delhi government wants to get rid of these 12 colleges through budget cuts. “Kejriwal had released the subsidy in January – before the elections in Punjab, and started stopping the subsidy once the elections were over,” he added.
According to Bhagi, this year’s proposed budget is even less than last year’s salary budget. “Nothing less than a permanent solution to this problem will be acceptable,” he claimed.
DUTA says that the teachers continued to teach the students in the midst of the Corona crisis. They organized online classes and helped organize activities needed for education and training. Due to the “careless attitude and biased thinking of the Delhi government, more than 1,000 such teachers have been concerned about their salaries in the past two years,” the teachers’ organization said.
Salaries are released to teachers and employees in Delhi’s government-funded colleges with a delay of two to six months, while in all other DU colleges funded by the central government, salaries are paid on time.
Not only for the teachers but also for the non-teaching staff and contract workers of these colleges, the financial crisis has arisen and it has become difficult for them to meet their daily expenses.
Even the Delhi Teachers Association (DTA), a teachers’ organization of the Aam Aadmi party, has accepted that these colleges have been hit by the “non-disclosure of scholarships by the Delhi government”.
“This has not only impacted salary payments, but also current medical bills, retirement benefits and other development costs,” DTA president Hansraj Suman told IANS.
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